Sunday, October 9, 2011

C4T # 2 Summary Post

     For my last two C4T posts, I had the pleasure of being assigned our very own Dr. Strange's blog, "Dr. John Strange's Strange Thoughts." I found both of his posts very interesting and thought provoking. The first post I commented on was "I'm Scared." This post was about all the people out there that do not think children should be exposed to the internet because of the unknown lurking dangers. Dr. Strange thinks this notion of "being scared" of the internet is simply not justified. He believes that as parents and educators we should not hide the internet from our children, but instead teach them how to use to properly and safely. I thought Dr. Strange made a good point. I used to be one of those concerned parents, but now I realize just how important the internet is to our children's future. If we want our children to have equal standing with the rest of the world, we must teach them to safely navigate the internet because this is their future.
     The second post I commented on was "Understand Sarcasm and Satire or You Might Be Dangerously Irrelevant as an Educator." This post was about a surprisingly large portion of our EDM 310 class, 35%, missing the sarcasm in a post we were assigned to read and comment on by Dr. Scott McLeod entitled, "Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff, Please." The post was obviously sarcastic, but some of our fellow EDM 310 students could not recognize the literary elements of satire and sarcasm. Dr. Strange was very concerned by this fact, as well as Dr. McLeod who tweeted him about it. Dr. Strange voiced his concerns but treated it like a lesson. He defined the literary terms "sarcasm" and "satire" and reminded his students of the class motto, "I don't know. Let's find out." I had to agree with Dr. Strange. I was very surprised myself to see the number of students that missed the mark. I told Dr. Strange that I was currently teaching my middle school students those devices, and so I just knew my fellow university students had been exposed to them in either middle school and high school. I liked the way Dr. Strange handled things though. He brought it to their attention and then gave them the information they needed so they could learn from their mistake.

     

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